Philippe Carrerot succeeded his father in 1713 as storekeeper when the colony at Plaisance moved to Île Royale (Cape Breton Island). In 1723 François Le Coutre de Bourville, the acting commandant of Île Royale, blamed him for neglecting his duties in favour of his own affairs; the following year, after a disagreement with the controller Antoine Sabatier, Carrerot handed over to his brother André the job as storekeeper, and the 500 livres salary that went with it, to devote himself to commerce. Philippe owned a schooner, the Union, and in 1726 he went into partnership with Jean Becquet of Quebec to sail this ship between Louisbourg and Canada. He also chartered his schooner to shipowners trading with the West Indies. He had been working a fishing concession at La Baleine (Baleine Cove) since 1717, and the census of 1734 shows that he employed five sailors there.

All these activities did not, however, make him wealthy. In 1728 Jacques-Ange Le Normant de Mézy, the financial commissary for Île Royale, asked him to account for the losses of provisions and clothing which had occurred while he had been storekeeper. Carrerot proved to Mézy’s satisfaction that the losses were to be attributed to the wide dispersion of the warehouses and their poor condition. Mézy was able to write to the minister that there had not been any embezzlement. “This poor wretch,” he added, “has no food for himself, his wife, and children, and is forced to navigate with a small schooner, which he charters to make a living.” Around 1731, therefore, Carrerot appeared again on the payroll of the colony, being employed in the administrative services of the hospital, bakery, and artillery. Le Normant* de Mézy praised him and requested a commission for him as a writer in the Marine in 1736. In 1732 Carrerot had succeeded his father as receiver of dues at the admiralty court, and in 1738, after the death of Marc-Antoine de La Forest*, he even assumed the functions of acting attorney of the admiralty court.

In 1745, having rashly gone out of the fortress at Louisbourg, which was being besieged at the time by the Anglo-Americans under the command of William Pepperrell, Carrerot was captured and taken to Boston, where he died that same year of his wounds. He left a tangled succession, as his sudden death had prevented him from furnishing accounts for his various positions. The financial commissary of Louisbourg, François Bigot*, presumed that Carrerot might have sent part of the funds that could not be accounted for to Canada, where he had continued doing business.

Around 1721 Carrerot had married Marie-Thérèse, the daughter of Jean-Baptiste Gautier and Marie Guyon Desprez of Quebec, by whom he had 15 children. His wife, who had followed him to Boston, went to Rochefort, France, and later returned to Louisbourg, where she married Louis-Antoine Hertel de Rouville in 1754. She died in France in 1761.

We acknowledge the support of the Government of Canada through the Department of Canadian Heritage. Nous reconnaissons l’appui du gouvernement du Canada par l’entremise du ministère du Patrimoine canadien.